Behaalotecha 5762 - May 31, 2002
Editor's Note:
re: looking at light
Though it occupies only three verses of this week's Torah reading, G‑d's commandment to Aaron to raise light in the Menorah's lamps gives the entire Parshah its name. Indeed, the Menorah and its lamps, the flames they hold aloft and the laws and procedures governing their lighting, are seen by our prophets and sages as representing the composition of our inner selves and the nature of our mission in life.
So we availed ourselves of the opportunity to assemble an anthology of 26 articles, stories and meditations on light: on its luminance and warmth, its goodness and beauty, its transcendence and ethereality, its paradoxes, fissions and refractions, the darkness from which it emerges and comes to displace, the guidance it holds out and the hope it fosters...
The path of light, sunglasses of the soul, the Lamplighter, the discovery of darkness, the inexistence of the universe, the spiritual significance of the rainbow -- 26 stories, essays and meditations on light and luminescence
We tend to think of life as composed of two kinds of time: "real time" devoted to career, family and friends; and "in-between" time -- waiting-room time, airport time, between-jobs time. Not so, says the Rebbe
Aaron lights the menorah; a second Passover is instituted; and people complain about the manna, demanding meat instead. Miriam is punished for speaking ill about her brother Moses, and the nation waits for her before leaving Sinai.
Aaron lights the menorah; a second Passover is instituted; and people complain about the manna, demanding meat instead. Miriam is punished for speaking ill about her brother Moses, and the nation waits for her before leaving Sinai.
"Tell me, Rabbi," he called out anxiously, "if... if I put on tefillin, will G-d protect me?"
Before we can shape our children's character -- or know if such a thing is possible -- we need to know what they're made of. The Kabbalistic doctrine of the "seven qualities" offers a clue
It’s G-d’s world. Everything He gives is good, the sweetest good.
But it is often a good far too great for us to understand. We imagine it is not good, because that’s the only way to make sense of it with our small minds.
Yet the truth is, He gives us all the good we can handle. If we could take more, He would g...